They’re not just about highs and lows on the map any more. The Weather Channel announced Thursday it’s latest original production, an ambitious-sounding six-part documentary series, “Tipping Points,” for which it serves as the U.S. partner.

The aim is to chronicle what’s going on with the Earth’s rapidly changing (“destabilizing,” scientists say) climate system. There’s no mention of “global warming” in the project description, but melting icecaps and dying rainforests are among the critical examples.

The six hours will follow a group of scientists from the Amazon to Siberia and beyond as they “explore the perilous tipping points making our weather systems more extreme and unpredictable.” According to the producers, “localized ecological systems are known to shift abruptly and irreversibly from one state to another when they are forced across critical thresholds… when pushed past the “tipping point,” it will potentially lead to a chain reaction, putting other ecosystems around the globe in peril.”

Time to geek out. NASA TV may become our favorite TV channel, at least on Sunday and Monday when Curiosity, the Mars science lab, is scheduled to enter the Martian atmosphere, descend and land on the Red Planet. All in high-definition. NASA has a countdown clock keeping time until then.

The landing is scheduled for 11:31 p.m. Sunday (MT) “plus or minus a minute.” (!) The scientists helpfully translate that as “3 p.m. local time at the Mars landing site.” Pre-landing press conferences and commentary are planned, with schedules posted on the site here. There are 17 cameras on the craft, getting different views, different resolutions, from a few millimeters down to microns in scale.

We know Denver is insane for sports, whether cheering seven professional sports teams, engaging in personal recreation, gossiping about individual Broncos or watching the Olympic variety.

We know Colorado has produced and trained a number of Olympic athletes, Missy Franklin included. We also know KUSA is among the strongest NBC affiliates in the country. Put that all together and you have a ratings bonanza in the Denver market for NBC’s Olympics coverage.

Denver ranks No. 3 in terms of viewership for the Games in London, behind Salt Lake City and Kansas City, in the five-day metered market average for Olympics viewing. The Denver market scored a 25.2 rating and 47 share (or percent of the viewing audience) so far. No numbers available on where Denver ranks among the loudest complainers about NBC’s tape-delayed coverage… But we must be up there.

Note, we have some catching up to do to beat our former record. Denver ranked No. 1 for the Vancouver Games coverage and #2 for Beijing.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.